This invention relates to a crashworthy fuel system for aircraft, for example, and more particularly to a valve used in such a system for delivery of fuel from a fuel tank to an engine of the aircraft.
Inasmuch as water has a specific gravity which is greater than common aircraft fuels (e.g., kerosene), any water in solution with fuel in an aircraft fuel tank tends to settle to the lowest point in the tank. In many types of aircraft, this point is a sump projecting down below the bottom of the tank, the sump being equipped with means for draining any water collecting in the sump. However, this arrangement has proven to be undesirable in that the sump is prone to rupture during a forced or crash landing of the aircraft, resulting in spillage of fuel from the tank.